January feels like the longest month ever sometimes, but don’t worry it’s almost over and to help you get through the last few steps we’ve got some games for you to read about!
Anthem
The Anthem VIP demo took place this weekend, a chance for those who pre-ordered or are members or Origin Access Premiere to try out the game before it’s release. I signed up for Origin Access so that I could have a play, I plan on writing a little more in-depth about the game in a separate post, so will only give you a brief impressions.
If you followed any of the news around the game you will have probably heard about the multitude of technical issues the game had, connection problems, infinite loading bugs, enemies disappearing and a fair few more all popped up in droves. I encountered most of these bugs myself and whilst it’s very frustrating, I’d like to hope that these will be addressed very quickly.
I’m not one for pre-ordering games anymore and this is precisely why, so for me it’s no big deal if it’s not sorted at launch, because I’m not buying it, at most I’ll still have my sub to Origin. But for those who have pre–ordered, well you could be in for a rough time and honestly it’s just not good enough anymore. Part of me thinks, like I said earlier, “It should be ok by launch” but in so many cases that’s just not how it is and for a game that’s been in development for so long and such a huge amount of money put in to it, we deserve a little better.
Beyond the bugs though I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the actual gameplay. The flying on PC needs a bit of work, but it’s still a lot of fun, the combat and more importantly the combo-ing of your moves is awesome, you feel powerful when raining down fire and lightning on your enemies. I’ve tried out both the Ranger and Storm classes of Javelin and the Storm is by far the more enjoyable to play as.
The environments look beautiful too, and transitioning from open areas with cliffs, waterfalls and giant fauna to the tighter tunnels is really cool and gives you different ways to play and approach encounters. They do seem a little empty in terms of things going on, but I’m hoping that’s just a demo thing?
I can see the potential with Anthem, the ability to create devastating combos and building Javelins to suit your play style looks like it could offer some real depth. But there are lots of small oversights, that simple just shouldn’t be in today’s world of online gaming. No custom waypoints, terrible UI with so much wasted space because they’ve gone for a stylish look rather than functional. The Tarsis (the hub area) portion of the game needs a complete re-think as it’s poor from top to bottom.
The demo is open to everyone this coming weekend and I’m excited to jump back on and try out the other classes and dig in to it a bit deeper, but early I’m still unsure. I really hope it will turn out well, but time will tell.
DayZ
I’ve been plying a lot of DayZ recently, I said a while back that now the modders can get their hands on it, it will really start to shine and I think it’s doing just that. I spent a few hours playing on one of the new maps being made ‘Deer Isle’ with a friend and had an awesome time. Again, I’ve put together a video, with more to come.
Raft
Me and my friends had an evening free this Saturday and were looking to play something new together, something with crafting of some sort. We settled on Raft, a survival game where you start life on a tiny raft and have to gather resources from the sea around whilst being (mostly) pursued by a shark. I’ve actually talked before about my fear of water in video games, but it turns out I’m not the only one as straight away one of my friends fell off the raft in to the shark infested water which sparked the most hilarious panic I think I’ve ever heard in my life. I was crying tears of laughter and it was excellent.
The next few hours were a good laugh with us just messing around trying to build up our raft and survive as long as possible. It’s
It’s an early access game, but it’s a pretty good one I think, there’s lots to learn and build with progression feeling pretty well balanced between not being to easy or too difficult. Although dying in the game isn’t much of a consequence as you just respawn back on the raft, so unless you had loads of good stuff on you, you’re really going to be too bothered.
If you like a casual, non PVP survival crafting game, then I’d recommend taking a look at Raft!
-Will
